Friday, November 08, 2013 5:33 am

Chiang relative on bail after Taiwan school threat

By PETER ENAVAssociated Press

The great-grandson of Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek has been charged with making threats against people at his former school, but he said Friday his comments were related to boxing practice.

Bail was set at New Taiwan dollars 80,000 ($2,700) and Chiang You-ching was ordered to surrender his passport, a prosecutor said live on television.

Speaking outside the Shihlin district Court in Taipei, Chiang, an amateur boxer, denied making any threats.

"People say I wanted to kill someone," he said. "But it was just in relation to my boxing practice. It had nothing to do with the school."

Taipei American School acknowledged it stepped up security following threats from an unnamed former student. Its statement said the school learned of the Facebook postings in October and that the threats to harm people were specifically made against administrators.

Chiang's Facebook page on Friday did not contain any specific threats but included a rant against school officials.

"I think TAS administrators are a group of ugly, balding and used-up white people," a posting said. "They are quite retarded."

Taiwanese media report that starting in August, Chiang used his Facebook page and email to threaten to kill staff and students at the school. A former teacher said Chiang is 23 and was expelled from TAS about six years ago after getting into an altercation with a fellow student.

The former teacher spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared retribution from school authorities.

Taipei American School has 2,600 students, many the well-heeled scions of Taiwanese business and political leaders who possess foreign passports.

Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese civil war to Communists on the mainland, and he ruled the island until his death in 1975. One of his successors was son Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang You-ching's grandfather.